In a working session in
Yaounde on Tuesday May 7, 2013, two officials from the international
secretariat of EITI, Tim Bittiger and Bady Balde said given the significant
strides in its last report, Cameroon could gain the ‘compliant’ country member
status when the Board meets in a validation session on August 13, 2013.
The working session that
brought together stakeholders in the extractive industries sector in Cameroon
was co chaired the Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey and the Minister of
Mines, Industries and Technological Development, Emmanuel Bonde.
EITI officials said the
meeting was intended to assess together with the visiting EITI international
secretariat team, what has been done and what needs to be done to make the
country’s report ready for the August session as it would be the last chance
for Cameroon to attain the ‘conformity’ or ‘compliant’ country status of the
EITI.
The working session took
place barely a few days after Cameroon had published the 2009/2010 report on
payments and revenues from the oil and mining sectors; a report that experts
say is of much better quality than the previous reports.
However, the EITI Board will
take a final decision on whether the country has followed the EITI rules when
the validation session of the reports opens in London this summer.
The visiting EITI team from
the international secretariat advised that Cameroon should speed up the
publication of the 2011 report as well a recruitment of a validator before
August 13, 2013.
Cameroon adhered to the EITI
on March 17, 2005 and in November 2007, she was granted the candidate country
status. On October 25, 2010, the EITI Board notified Cameroon of the granting
her a “candidate close to compliant” status. Since then, Cameroon has been
faced with the challenge of becoming a “compliant” country status of the EITI
rules.
By Ndi Eugene Ndi
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